Page 3602 - Week 12 - Tuesday, 19 October 1993
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Mr Moore asked Ms Follett to detail what levies apply to gas, and she could not say. She said, "I will take it on notice". In fact, gas is taxed at 1.75 per cent of the gross revenue derived from the sale of reticulated gas. Her own budget papers tell us that, and it appears that she is not familiar enough with them to be able to tell us when we ask that question on the floor of the Assembly. The tax that will go on diesel fuel is 7.08c a litre. At a retail price of 70c a litre, approximately, that represents a 10 per cent tax.
If we assume that we are looking at taxes on home heating, why are they so inequitably applied across the system? Why is it that a person who uses gas is taxed at a rate of 1.75 per cent of what they purchase, but a person who uses diesel fuel is going to be taxed at a rate of 10 per cent of what they use? That is clearly inequitable. I have done an equivalent calculation, using the Chief Minister's assertion that there is a tax on electricity as well, which I think is an exaggeration. Looking at the equivalent figures for electricity, based on total revenue earned by ACTEW and the dividend they paid in the 1991-92 year, which was $19m, dividing the total revenue on electricity sales into the total revenue, if only 65.58 per cent of ACTEW's total revenue related to electricity sales, you can assume that 65.58 per cent of the dividend paid to the Government - that is, $12,460,200 - is generated by electricity sales. That is the electricity tax, if you like. That works out to be a 6.1 per cent tax on people who purchase electricity. The Chief Minister herself told us only a few days ago that there is no tax on heating oil. I quote the Chief Minister on 16 September:
I point out to members the advice I have, which is that heating oil is not the same as diesel fuel. In relation to heating oil, the Government has taken no action whatsoever. We do not tax it.
So we have no tax on heating oil; there is none, presumably, on solid fuel such as wood; there is 1.75 per cent on gas; there is 6.1 per cent on electricity; and now we have a grand total of something like 10 per cent on diesel fuel. Clearly, this Government does not know where it is going. It is all over the shop. It does not have a policy on this. You just grabbed the dollars because you know that you need a lot of money. You decided to grab the dollars that might be available at this point in order to give you a balanced budget. Frankly, it is not good enough. It is important for us to bear in mind that this amounts to a very heavy impost on certain selected sections of the ACT community and not on others. It is inequitable. It flies in the face of social justice. Ms Follett said today that it was inequitable that the Government allowed diesel fuel to be exempt from taxation while other forms of heating were subject to taxation. Yet she herself has not applied that principle consistently.
There is also the issue of purchasing in New South Wales. Today in question time Mr Moore asked an interesting question about customers who have off-road equipment that uses diesel fuel and who simply then go over the border, on the application of this tax in the ACT, and buy their fuel where exemptions exist for purchase of diesel for off-road equipment. Let me quote from the New South Wales statute, the Business Franchise Licences (Petroleum Products) Act 1987:
"off-road purpose" means any purpose other than that of propelling diesel-engined road vehicles on roads.
That is very similar to the position at the moment in the ACT. It continues:
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